LONDON: British police said Saturday they were examining new information about the 1997 death of Diana, princess of Wales, reportedly including an allegation that she was murdered by someone in the British military.
Scotland Yard police headquarters said it was checking the credibility of recently received information about the deaths of the princess and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed.
They were killed by a car crash in a Paris underpass in the early hours of August 31, 1997, along with their driver, Henri Paul.
Citing a military source, Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency said it understood the allegation was made by the former parents-in-law of an ex-soldier, based on information he had talked about in the past.
PA and Sky News television said the information had been passed to Scotland Yard by the Royal Military Police.
“The Metropolitan Police Service is scoping information that has recently been received in relation to the deaths and assessing its relevance and credibility,” Scotland Yard said in a statement.
“The assessment will be carried out by officers from the specialist crime and operations command.
“This is not a re-investigation and does not come under Operation Paget.”
Paget was the police inquiry into the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the crash. It concluded that all the allegations it assessed were without foundation.
Scotland Yard said they were not prepared to discuss the matter further.
Diana’s boyfriend Fayed, 42 — the son of Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed — and their driver Paul — the deputy head of security at Al-Fayed’s plush Hotel Ritz in Paris — were pronounced dead at the scene.
Diana, 36, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the mother of Princes William and Harry, died later in hospital.
Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Al-Fayed family’s protection team, survived. None of them had been wearing seatbelts.
Diana married Charles in 1981 but their already shaky marriage fell apart soon after Harry’s birth in 1984. They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.
A royal spokeswoman said there would be no comment on the matter from William or Harry, or from Charles’s Clarence House office.
The Ministry of Defence also said it was not commenting.
Sky News said Al-Fayed was watching the latest developments with interest and was keen to know the outcome.
The broadcaster said the new information includes references to Diana’s diary, and to the SAS, the British military’s elite Special Air Service.
Diana had been dating Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan for around two years before her relationship with Fayed.
The upcoming film “Diana”, due out in September with Naomi Watts in the title role, focuses on her time with Khan.
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